Reducing friction

January 26, 2010 | 3 Comments

There is a lot of friction in buying a new house. Agents. Lawyers. Notaries. More agents.

I recently helped design a social media campaign for a client. The campaign was less successful than it could have been because there was too much friction. The process to participate had too many hurdles and some people abandoned it before completing.

One of the most effective things to do to improve your business (not always the simplest but the most effective) is to remove as much friction as humanly possible.

Then remove a little more.

I know a lot of companies that ‘secret shop’ their competitors. Many should secret shop themselves first, with an open mind and a critical eye toward removing friction.

Mint.com beat Intuit’s Quickbooks because it was web-based, but they weren’t the first web-based money management system. A tool called Wesabe was around first. But to use Wesabe (back then), users had to download a .csv from their bank’s website and upload it to their Wesabe account. (I can’t fathom the meeting where that level of friction got approved.)

Friction killed Wesabe.

The lack of friction made Mint.com millions. $187m to be exact.

Netflix took share from Blockbuster by removing friction. With Blockbuster, you had to drive to the store. With Netflix, you just had to go to your mailbox. (Blockbuster quickly followed suit.)

Redbox is taking share from both by removing even more friction. With Redbox, you don’t need a mailbox or even an account.

Think of the amount of friction in a typical Verizon store. Now think of the lack of friction in an Apple store or a Chipotle or a Starbucks.

The simple act of not having to sign certain credit card transactions under $25 removes friction and saves both the retailer and the customer time, saving companies like McDonald’s and others millions of dollars.

Most airlines did a decent job of removing some friction with online check-in and handy touch-screen kiosks. Unfortunately, they stopped there.

Think of the loads of friction in a typical primary care doctor visit. My friend Jay Parkinson is completely reinventing health care delivery, and he’s doing so by removing friction from the process.

I can stop by my local dry-cleaner, leave my shirts on the front counter and smile and wave to the owner in the back. In three days, I come back and my shirts are clean with light starch.

If he can remove friction from his business, you can too, right?

Your new competition

January 24, 2010 | 12 Comments

Quick. Take 30 seconds and list your main competitors.

(don’t worry, I’ll wait)

Done?

Good.

Sorry, but your list is wrong.

Unless of course, you listed Zappos, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Trader Joe’s, Wegman’s, Netflix, The Container Store and Apple.

Your customers are doing business with these companies, who are constantly raising the bar on engagement and customer delight.

Every time your customer’s online order arrives earlier than expected from Zappos…

Every time your customer chuckles at a Southwest flight attendant who weaves humor into the emergency exit script…

Every time your customer feels a human connection with a checker in line at Trader Joe’s…

Every time your customer is glad that there are so many helpful colored shirts at the Apple Store…

It’s happening right now. Your customers are experiencing this kind of interaction (notice I didn’t say transaction) today.

The bar has been raised.

What are you going to do?

Flowtown knows what you're wearing

January 17, 2010 | 13 Comments

OK, they may not know what you’re wearing but there is a good chance they know your customers better than you do.

Flowtown uses emails from your customer database, (you do have an email database for your customers, right?) and can tell you interesting and valuable information about those customers.

I recently met the founders of Flowtown online. They are wicked smart guys with a product that is immediately useful to almost any business.

Below is my interview with Ethan Bloch.

Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Ethan Bloch and I’m the Co-founder and CEO of Flowtown.

Why should companies use Flowtown?
Because social media is hard and Flowtown turns social data in dollars.

How much does Flowtown know about someone from their email address?
Name, Age Group, Gender, Occupation, Location, Influence and almost every Social network they’re on.

Really? Wow. Do you know what I’m wearing right now?
I think you’d prefer I didn’t say ;)

So this would allow companies to do more targeted campaigns. For instance, if only 10,000 of their 100,000 members are twitter users, they could do a focused campaign, right?
Totally, way more focused. For example if you’re not on Twitter it would be annoying to get an email saying ‘Hi Clay, we’re building out our presence on Twitter…” you’d be like “I’m not on there, why are you sending me this?” On the flip side we’ve found that if you know someone is on a network and you mention that in your email, the performance of that campaign skyrockets.

Is Flowtown a replacement for traditional email systems like Flowtown, AWeber or MailChimp?
In the case of mainstream email service providers, I don’t think Flowtown is a replacement but rather an enhancement. For example we’ve built an integration with MailChimp where any MailChimp user can come to Flowtown and in 3 clicks dump a ton of demographic and social graphic information back into their MailChimp list and then use MailChimp’s segmentation feature to get more relevant with their subscribers.

You guys are adding interesting new features to Flowtown pretty quickly. Tell us about some of them.
We just launched an influence calculation (powered by Klout), where now when you import a contact list we’ll show you your top 50 influencers, which you can use to do 1-on-1 outreach i.e. we’re showing you the 20% that will drive 80% of the results, in respect to getting noticed and building buzz.

In fact everything we do at Flowtown is ran through this ‘Pareto Lens’ – early on, internally, Dan and I would speak of Flowtown as the 80/20 marketing filter for business.

Tell me about your partner, Dan Martell. How did you guys meet?
He’s a Rockstar – we wouldn’t be anywhere close to where we are today without Dan.

We actually met on Twitter back in September 2008. Did an IRL meetup, discovered we’re both passionate about marketing and moving the needle for business and the rest is history…

Tell us what your typical day at Flowtown is like.
I wake up around 6:30 and immediately touch base with David (VP of Engineering), he’s on EST so by the time I get up I’m already playing catchup.

(I jumpstart my day by using a strategy from Leo at Zen Habits: http://zenhabits.net/2007/02/jumpstart-your-day-night-before-evening/)

I’ll do a brief skim of all the new email that’s came in make sure there’s no bombs going off and then then I’ll work on 1-2 of the most important tasks I have scheduled for the day, for the next 3 hours, usually product, sales or biz dev focused, this could include new product mocks, coding, emails, phone calls, brainstorming and white boarding.

After those 3-hours are up I start going into a more ad-hoc mode, where I’m answering email/tweets, talking to customers, closing new customers, working with David on new features, bouncing around the bay for meetings, testing new features, breaking things and syncing up with Dan.

Later in the day/evening is when I go to the 30,000+ foot view of life, this includes research, reading (going through my Instapaper) and planning.

What did you do before you started Flowtown?
Right before I started Flowtown I was producing/hosting a video show called WSYK? (What Should You Know?) which was syndicated by Revision3. And I was a marketer full time at Cake Financial, a start-up that was recently sold to E-Trade.

Where do you hope Flowtown will be in 3 years?
Flowtown will be responsible for raising the bar on customer experience/service, by helping all businesses care for their customers like Zappos cares for theirs.

What’s the plan then?
Not sure if I’ll be ready, but I want to help fill the massive void in education. I hated school growing up and think there’s a lot we can do to improve the experience for children everywhere.

You’re from Baltimore. Please tell me you’ve seen the Wire or we’re ending this interview right now.

“You come at the king you best not miss.”

I love The Wire. My favorite character is Omar and if you don’t know why just watch this.

Thanks, Ethan.

If you want to try Flowtown yourself, enter your email address here.

Layering snowballs

January 15, 2010 | 4 Comments

With the right temperature and a little wet snow, anyone can make a snowball, but my friend Jimmy makes them all day, everyday, in sunny San Diego.

I had another excellent call with Jimmy and a potential client today. After the call, a light bulb went on and I realized what makes Jimmy such a great entrepreneur.

He only thinks in snowball.

Every component of every deal has the capability to snowball. Everything has high probability growth potential. I can’t ever remember Jimmy discussing a deal by saying, “that’s what we’ll sell. That’s that and we’ll move on to the next deal.”

It’s always designed to snowball.

But here’s the key. The snowball isn’t just for Jimmy, it’s for the clients too. He is a master at layering snowballs. Many deals involve three or four parties and Jimmy is particularly skilled at identifying each party’s needs; what they want and what they can give up without much pain. He sees multi-faceted win-wins like a Grand Master chess player sees so many moves ahead. And then he authentically articulates these win-wins so the clients see them too, which makes the sale that much easier.

How do I know Jimmy will be successful?

Eventually, a bunch of layered snowballs create an avalanche.

[photo by: nata]

The Second Sale

January 11, 2010 | 7 Comments

Too many marketers focus solely on the first sale.

I was leaving Las Vegas today (Nicholas Cage was nowhere in sight) and with my stomach sensing that my culinary options would be limited once on board, I decided to grab lunch while at the gate.

My best option was Moe’s Mexican Grill. I had never eaten at a Moe’s but a burrito sounded good and it was very close to my gate. The next option was a Starbucks five gates away. Clearly, my first visit to Moe’s was one of impulse and convenience.

While waiting in line, I perused the menu.

The Homewrecker brought to mind a joke a friend recently made about about Gisele Bundchen.

The Jon Coctostan quesadilla brought me back to about 136 hilarious late night viewings of Fletch with my good friend Ben Lower.

Joey Bag Of Donuts made me think of the former Green Bay Packers center Frank Winters, who teammates would lovingly refer to as Frankie Bag Of Donuts.

Ruprict triggered memories of laughing uncontrollably at Steve Martin’s hilarious character in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. (Why is the cork on the fork?)

I physically smiled. A few funny item names on a menu immediately triggered happy memories.

Then something happened.

Moe’s workers seemed more upbeat than your typical airport food service employees.

Moe’s customers seemed happier and less haggard.

Moe’s burrito tasted a little better than I expected.

Was all this real or a placebo effect leftover from the menu that made me smile?

It doesn’t matter.

I won’t drive miles out of my way to go to Moe’s but if I’m hungry and they are an option, the choice is easy.

If I’m alone, I get to smile at the menu again (maybe they’ll have some new items by then – I would love to see an Underhill Steak Sandwich). If I’m with a friend, I get to share their enjoyment of the inside joke.

By having a little fun with their menu, Moe’s locked up the second sale.

What to sell (in order)

June 30, 2009 | 1 Comment

Cuchuflis

Great marketer, author and branding expert Harry Beckwith reminds us what order to sell in.

What the best salespeople sell (in order):
Themselves.
Their company.
Their service or product.
Their price.

Sell yourself first.

What the worst salespeople sell (in order):
Price.
Their service or product.
Their company.
Themselves.

Sell your price last.

Where should we Tweet tonight?

May 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment

kogi-bbq-long-line-1024x768

Everyone is worried about Twitter’s business model. Will they last? How will they make money?

Kogi isn’t worrying. The Los Angeles-based roving Korean-style taco vendors are using Twitter to improve their own business model.

Since the cultishly popular Kogi BBQ trucks are mobile venues, they use Twitter to broadcast the location and menu items to their legion of fans.

Recent Tweets from Kogi:

Heads up guys! Kogi Roja will be at The Brig in Venice @ 11 o’clock!

KOGI SPECIAL! Korean Burger w Chile Salted Watermelon! @ ALL LOCATIONS!

Kogi is in Santa Monica @ Bergamont Station @ 2525 Michigan Ave. SM. Santa Museum of Art. OPEN TO PUBLIC.

Kogi’s food is cheap, unique and fun, but adding scarcity to the equation ensures something else: the thrill of the chase. Kogi’s trucks tweet their next location and before long, the line looks like the picture above. When the masses are served, the Kogi truck packs up, tweets a new location and by the time they arrive, the line is waiting.

The customers line up before Kogi gets there. What a great business model. Even Steve Jobs can only pull that off once a year.

And like another popular Californian fast food institution used to do, Kogi keeps some of the menu items reserved for ‘insiders’. Right on the trucks, Kogi’s menu lists a few items, including tacos and burritos stuffed with Korean short ribs, spicy pork, chicken and tofu. But Kogi’s Twitter feed lists even more.

This doesn’t have to be limited to Kogi and fast food. Next time I find some perfect tomatoes at the Union Square Market, I can tweet the location and the vendor and add the hashtag #tomatoes.

Let’s all stop worrying about Twitter’s business model. Instead, think about how Twitter can improve your business model. The possibilities are endless.

Remember The Milk

March 28, 2009 | 1 Comment

No, I’m not talking about the excellent, GTD-enabling task management tool or the amazing performance by Sean Penn.

I’m talking about crystallizing and being able to articulate your one key message.

One.

If your spouse sends you to the store just for milk, you bring home the milk.
If they ask you to pick up milk, Cheez-its, Windex, apples, paper towels and oh yeah, make sure you pick up the dry cleaning, you might remember everything except the milk, which was the most important item.

The same is true when you’re giving a presentation or are in a sales meeting.

The client or audience is going to remember the one thing you tell them.

If you only tell them one thing.

If you drone on and on about how great you are and how many services you provide and how many features your product has, your main point will be forgotten in the grocery bag of stuff you just dumped on the table.

Identify your ‘milk’.

Sell just the milk.

Forget about the Windex.

Are you in the right building?

March 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Building

It seems obvious. Who you sell to depends on what you’re selling. But it is easy to caught up in the excitement of your product or the fact that you finally have a sales call that it can be easy to forget whether the buyer is even in the room.

Let’s say you’re selling a big company on an enterprise wide social media campaign. Are you selling the IT department? Will the CIO approve the project and write the check? Or is it the marketing department and the CMO will write the check? Is sales involved? Is the check big enough that it will need finance approval?

Are all the buyers in the room? Are they even in the same building?

Do you have a card?

March 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment

So imagine you’re a musician and you just finished giving a show to a passionate crowd at a medium sized venue. The crowd loved the show but let’s say they already bought your debut CD for $10 at the last gig. You still want to capitalize while they’re still all tingly from the show’s finale. So you announce that for only $1, they can download three unreleased songs, only available to people who buy the digital download card.

This is a great marketing tactic. The cost is known upfront. You can set the price or give them away free to your permission email list to stretch the tribe a bit.

Where else could this tactic work?

_________________________________________

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD CARDS

* 1000 cards for only $489.00
* Free card design (a $100 value)
* You keep 100% of card sales revenue
* No hosting or set-up fees
* Free shipping in the USA
* High-quality, full-color 30 mil. plastic cards (not laminated paper)
* Works on all MP3 players
* DRM-Free (allows files to be burned to CD!)

How does it work?

Each card has a unique, eight-digit code printed on the reverse. This code gains the cardholder access to a personalized download page at the Soundtrax website. You decide how many times the code can be used to access the download page. Once downloaded, the music can be imported to any MP3 player (including the iPod and Zune) or burned to a CD.

You keep 100% of the revenue from card sales. And unlike iTunes and most other download services, you set your own price for the music or use the cards for free distribution for promotional purposes.

Other advantages include the ability to sell the cards at performances, rather than counting on fans that prefer downloads to seek out a download service later (after the glow of the live experience has worn off).

Want a free Soundtrax card?

Send us your address and we’ll mail you one today!

info@soundtrax.com

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